Covid Puts the Lie to Los Angeles Exceptionalism

Rapahel Nir, Ph.D.

Dr. Nir is a scientist, entrepreneur, and angel investor with over 30 years of experience commercializing recombinant cytokines and pre-clinical contract research services. Dr. Nir is the Co-Founder of two preclinical Contract Research Organizations: SBH Sciences and Woodland Biosciences, four biotech companies: Karyopharm Therapeutics (Nasdaq: KPTI), Galectin Sciences, VuJa De Sciences, and Alma BioTherapeutics. Dr. Nir is also Co-Founder of SBH Diagnostics.

To fulfill his vision and help startup companies, he co-founded two additional companies; Sky Ventures and ABI-LAB; a bioincubator located in Natick, MA.

He received his PhD from Tel-Aviv University (Biotechnology; 1990) and Master in engineering management (1997; NJIT). Since 1997, Dr. Nir serves as the President and CSO of SBH Sciences where he manages all company’s R&D and business activities.

Carlos Aparicio, Ph.D.

Carlos Aparicio, PhD, InnoTech, Chief Operating Officer has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. Prior to joining InnoTech Precision Medicine, he served as CEO & President of CLAS Automation, Inc., a world-renowned provider of laboratory automation services to Clinical Research Organizations (CROs), pharmaceutical companies, and academia. Prior to CLAS Automation, Dr Aparicio held C-level positions and worked in product development for ImmunoSite Technologies, Abbott, Beckman-Coulter, Warner-Lambert, and Ciba-Geigy. In addition, he is currently a Technical Lead for the NIH/RADx-Tech program for the rapid development of diagnostic tests for Covid-19, advising diagnostic companies in their development and commercialization strategies. Dr Aparicio is active in his community by participating as member of advisory committees for University of Miami Biomedical Engineering Department, Miami-Dade Community College, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Hialeah Technology Center, and Greater Ft Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce. Carlos earned a Ph.D. in Chemical/Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University, M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, and a B.S. in Engineering Science from the University of Miami

Reza Mollaaghababa, Ph.D., J.D.

Reza Mollaaghababa, Ph.D., J.D., co-founder, Device Engineer and Intellectual Property Manager has a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University and a J.D. from Suffolk University. He is a serial entrepreneur with an interest in medical devices. He brings in over 30 years of experience in microfluidics and electronics as well as in strategic intellectual property planning. He is a serial entrepreneur in medical device companies with early exits. He has additionally advised a variety of start-up companies on strategy. He helps with identification and protection of InnoTech’s intellectual property and business strategy.

Rich Devito, M.S.

Richard DeVito, M.S., co-founder, and Principal Engineer, received his M.S. in Physics from Syracuse University. Rich is a physicist by education and engineer by training. He has over 30 years of experience in nanotechnology and MEMs research and development, process and product development, manufacturing and leadership. He has held positions as Principal Engineer at Reytheon, designing and optimizing manufacturing processes for a variety of devices including medical devices; a Principal Engineer at MKS, where he was involved in managing the workflow of the processes for manufacturing of chips for EUA authorized COVID-19 tests for some of their customers. Among other recent roles that he has held are leadership roles at Draper Labs in Cambridge, MA, directing and managing the workflow and process at the biology and MEMS facilities. He has also served as the Director of Northeastern University’s Nano manufacturing facility for eight years with programs including biosensor development with nanomaterial. He has experiences in a vast array of micro and nanofabrication processes and device engineering. He has worked on and lead projects that range from developing optical coatings to Infrared sensors and ceramic transducers. He has 5 patents on unique equipment and device designs. He cofounded an equipment company that was sold to Veeco Corporation in 2005 and was a founder of another technology company with Dr. Roya Khosravi-Far that was sold to GT Advanced Technologies in 2015. He also was involved with another startup diagnostic company with Dr. Mollaaghababa that was sold recently.

Roya Khosravi-far, Ph.D., PLD

Roya Khosravi-Far, Ph.D., PLD, InnoTech, co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officeris passionate about translating bench-side discoveries to bed-side realities.  She is an experienced entrepreneur and has led successful translational programs in research and development over the last 30 years in both academia and industry.  She received her [Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and carried out her Postdoctoral Fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cancer Immunology.  She has a graduate certificate from Harvard Business School on Program in Leadership Development. She was a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School (17 years) and is an Emeritus Pathologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.  She has served as VP of R&D at ZioPharm (Alaunos) and President and CTO at Accurome Health.  She has certificates in Translational Medicine from Harvard Medical School, Biopharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs from Northeastern University. She has had an early exit in a device company.

Dr. Khosravi-Far is leading the research and development team working to develop and commercialize a high performance diagnostic platform, RecognizeTM,based on simultaneous detection of multiple classes of macromolecules from one specimen to improve accuracy and allow early detection of complex diseases. She works with in-house experts and external partners, and consulting groups to align the development, validation and commercialization of RecognizeTM.  She has been the PI and awardee of many NCI, NHLBI, DOD, ACS, and others. Her published scientific work and discoveries have been cited close to 14000 times and she has co-authored seventy-nine publications in peer-reviewed journals, co-edited three books, and has several issued patents. She is the PI of a RADx-rad and RADx-rad supplement awards from the NIH for the initial development of RecognizeTM. With her leadership InnoTech has been selected to various incubator and accelerator programs and received multiple awards and prizes including MassNextGen, MassMedic Ignite, M2D2/BARDA Impact, Barracuda Bowl (Finalist), EPPICON (Fist prize), PxDx (Finalist), etc.